With doll clothes, small mistakes add up fast. If your printer shrinks a pattern by 3 percent, you would hardly notice it on a skirt for yourself. On a doll with a 9 cm waist, 3 percent is almost 3 mm, which is the whole seam allowance of a doll pattern. That is the difference between a skirt that closes and one that does not.
All our PDF patterns for 11.5 inch fashion dolls such as Barbie® are made to print at 100 percent on A4 or US Letter paper. The catch is that many printers and PDF viewers do not print at 100 percent unless you tell them to.
Use the right print settings
If you can, open the pattern in a PDF reader rather than in a web browser. Browser print windows often scale the page without asking. Then, in the print window:
- Choose "Actual size", "100%" or "No scaling". The wording depends on the program.
- Turn off "Fit to page", "Shrink oversized pages" and "Fit to printable area".
- Pick the paper size you have in the printer, A4 or US Letter. Our files print at 100 percent on either.
- Leave the orientation as it is in the file.
- Print one sheet first, check it, then print the rest.
Check the test marks
Every one of our pattern sheets has a 1 cm line and a 1 inch line printed on it. After printing, lay a ruler on both. If they measure true, the pattern is the right size and you can cut. If either is short or long, the printer scaled the page: go back to the print settings before you print the other sheets. This check takes ten seconds and catches almost every sizing problem before it reaches the fabric.
Check against the doll
Hold the printed skirt or bodice piece against your doll. Our patterns include the seam allowance, about 3 to 4 mm, so the piece should be a little bigger than the doll, not the same size. If it is clearly too small or too big even though the test marks are right, check that you printed the sheet for your doll's body type: several patterns have separate Regular and Curvy pieces, and the Size Guide explains how to tell the bodies apart.
No printer?
Open the PDF on a screen, zoom in until the 1 cm line on the screen measures exactly 1 cm with a ruler, lay thin paper over the screen and trace the pieces. A print shop will also print the file for you; ask for 100 percent, no scaling. Patterns that come with SVG files can be opened in a vector program such as Inkscape, which is free, and printed from there at 100 percent as well.
Paper or card?
Plain printer paper is fine for one or two outfits. If you plan to sew the same piece many times, trace it onto thin card. It lasts longer and is easier to draw around on fabric. Do not cut the pattern pieces apart on the printed sheet until you have checked the test marks; once the sheet is cut, the marks are easy to lose.
A4 or US Letter
The two paper sizes are close but not the same: A4 is a little narrower and longer than US Letter. Our pattern sheets print at 100 percent on either, so you do not need to convert anything. What matters is that the paper size chosen in the print window matches the paper in the tray; if the two differ, some printer drivers quietly scale the page to make it fit, and the test marks come out short. Set the size, print one sheet, measure, then print the rest.
The two-minute checklist
- PDF reader, not a browser.
- Actual size or 100 percent; Fit to page off.
- Paper size in the window = paper in the tray.
- Print one sheet, measure the 1 cm and 1 inch marks.
- Pick the sheet for your doll's body type, then print the rest.
Questions we get
Can I scale the pattern up for a bigger doll?
Scaling changes every measurement at once, including the seam allowance, and a bigger doll is not a 1:6 doll made larger. Our patterns are drafted for the 11.5 inch and 12 inch bodies listed on each product page.
The print is right, but the piece does not fit my doll.
Check the body type first. A Regular bodice will not close on a Curvy doll, and a Curvy skirt slides down on a Regular one. The product page says which bodies the pattern was fitted on.
The file will not open.
The download link is on your order page and in your confirmation email. If the file does not open or something looks wrong, write to us at mbdinerija@gmail.com with your order number and we will help.
You can find all our patterns under Sewing Patterns. Each pattern says which body types it was fitted on; if you are not sure which body your doll has, the Size Guide explains how to tell.